NEW YORK (AP) -- The prospect of a stronger economy and word of possible new U.N. sanctions against Iran sent crude oil futures back above $96 a barrel Friday, while retail gasoline prices extended their own march higher.

The Labor Department reported that employers boosted payrolls by 166,000 jobs in October, the biggest increase in months and double what economists had forecast. Meanwhile, October's unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent. Separately, the Commerce Department said factory orders rose 0.2 percent in September, better than the 0.4 percent decline analysts were expecting.

"It suggests that concerns about the economy ... are overblown a little bit," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research Inc., in Winchester, Mass.

Oil futures added to their gains late Friday when the British Foreign Office said the U.N. Security Council has agreed to draft a new sanctions resolution that could be passed in November if Iranian cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency does not improve. Investors worry that any conflict between the West and Iran would disrupt oil supplies from the Middle East.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $2.44 to settle at a record $95.93 a barrel on the New

NEW YORK (AP) -- The operator of the New York Stock Exchange said Friday its third-quarter profit more than tripled as market volatility over the summer produced record volume.

NYSE Euronext, the product of the New York Stock Exchange's April acquisition of European rival Euronext, saw earnings surge to $258 million, or 97 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30 from $68 million, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding costs such as those tied to the acquisitions of Euronext and Archipelago, as well as a gain on the sale of member firm regulatory functions, the company earned $202 million, or 76 cents per share.

Revenue jumped to $1.2 billion from $602 million a year ago, with 25 percent of total revenue generated by trading of derivatives, and 18 percent from European cash trading.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected profits excluding items of 73 cents per share.

NYSE Euronext, which operates exchanges in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon, said

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported a 64 percent jump in third-quarter profit Friday on strong investment gains.

Berkshire said it earned $4.55 billion, or $2,942 per share, during the quarter that ended Sept. 30. That's up from last year's third-quarter net income of $2.77 billion, or $1,797 per share.

Officials at Berkshire, which is led by billionaire Warren Buffett, typically do not comment on quarterly earnings reports. A spokeswoman said no one was available Friday to comment on the report.

Investment gains of $1.99 billion accounted for nearly half of Berkshire's quarterly earnings.

Berkshire's sale of its investment in Chinese oil conglomerate PetroChina may account for a significant portion of the company's investment gains although not all of that happened during the quarter, said Andy Kilpatrick, the stockbroker-author of "Of Permanent Value, the Story of Warren Buffett."

Berkshire started selling off its 2.3 billion shares of PetroChina sometime this summer and finished selling the last of them in October. Buffett has said in interviews that Berkshire made about $3.5 billion on the

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup Inc.'s board plans an emergency meeting on Sunday, and Chief Executive Charles Prince is expected to offer to resign, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal cited people familiar with the situation.

Citigroup spokesmen declined to comment on the report.

Citigroup posted a 57 percent profit drop in the third quarter after taking billions of dollars in writedowns of debt tied up in the tight credit markets and defaulting mortgages. Speculation about whether Prince would leave has been swirling in the market since then.

Many investors expect Citigroup to take similar, or perhaps even larger, write-offs in coming quarters.

Analysts have downgraded Citigroup and other major financial institutions in recent days because of concerns about their debt holdings and potential write-offs.

Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo estimated in a note late Thursday that the investment banks will need to take an additional $10 billion in writedowns in the fourth quarter, and that Citigroup's share would